Vintage Gallery Wall

I fell in love with the idea of a vintage gallery wall filled with empty frames; particularly, those vintage picture frames and old painting frames that were ornate, antique, and unusual. So I decided to make my own version of empty frame decor by collecting the frames and upcycling a few with spray paint.

I spent some time gathering my gallery wall frames, picking ones I liked or seemed like a good price. Some of my empty frames were found at thrift stores, a few at antiques shops, and a couple at an estate sale. 

I never gave it any thought on how they would all come together. Not that I’m advocating that entirely, but after playing around with them, I finally found a grouping I was happy with.

From there, I simply needed to determine which ones should be painted and them hang them on our wall!

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Empty Frame Decor with Vintage Picture Frames

Unlike many of the examples of these empty frame collages, I decided to paint my frames using three different, but complementary, colors (subtle metallics). 

I decided to leave two of my vintage picture frames as they were. They were each attractive in their own way and added a nice textural aberration within the grouping.

These gallery wall frames are perfect as-is, don’t you think? Plus, one is already a subtle metallic gold.

Something to note: one of the vintage picture frames was in rickety disrepair when I bought it. Well, several of them were, but nothing that a couple of small nails and hammer couldn’t fix.

However, my smallest one was particularly banged up in the corners and chunks of wood completely missing. Literally, as if someone had taken a bite out of this vintage picture frame.

But these imperfections were smoothed out by his paint job and gave him unusual character. So definitely don’t pass up the beat up and neglected antique picture frames for a project like this.

Not only can you likely haggle for a dirt cheap price, but they add authenticity to your vintage gallery wall.

Vintage Gallery Wall

Arranging and hanging my vintage gallery wall was no easy feat. BUT, I took someone’s’ advice and traced each frame on newspaper, cut the tracings out, and taped (using painter’s tape!) to the wall where I wanted them hung.

This allowed for subtle movement and perfecting the distance apart from each other.

And the end result? Definitely eye-catching and pride-worthy.

So what do you think? Is a vintage gallery wall in your decor future? 

And even though this project was from our old house and we no longer have the right wall for this, I kept many of the frames. You’ll see them from time to time on my blog, such as in this Thrift the Look: Eclectic Decor post.

And in this vignette that displayed my upcycled versions of Cloisonne vases, too.

Last but not least, I also have this fantastic collection of upcycled picture frames chock full of upcycling ideas– time to run to the thrift store!

Craft on!

S

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